Families of children with Down syndrome and maternal strategies of coping with stress knowing the diagnosis

Family has a very important role in children's life, because it influences their development in many ways. Also children themselves influence family members with their developmental and behavioral characteristics and they have an effect on the dynamics of what is happening in the family. The diagnosis of Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, which causes characteristic facial features, hypotonic muscles, hyperflexibility of conclusions, sensitive skin, sparse hair and big tongue, touches all family members and it may have a drastic effect on them. A person affected by this chromosomal disorder has visible facial characteristics as well as specific cognitive and personality traits. Due to this reason even the birth of the child suffering from Down syndrome represents a major stress in parents' lives. The stress may also increase during the children's development; it may be especially stressful for mothers, who spend more time with their children in the early period (Most et al., 2006; Norizan in Shamsuddin, 2010; Padeliadu, 1998). The mothers’ ability to cope with stress essentially depends on the support they receive from their partners and the environment they live in, as well as on their stress coping strategies. In the thesis I was interested to discover, on one hand, how all family members face the birth of a child with Down syndrome – what are they experiencing and feeling when they received the diagnosis and whether the child's syndrome had a significant impact on family relationships and parents' attitude towards experts; on the other hand my aim was to observe how effectively does the mother struggle with stress. For this purpose, I have formed a semi-structured interview in which participated mothers of five children of different ages, who are affected by Down syndrome. From the conducted interviews I learned how they coped with the diagnosis and how much they have been assisted by experts, their partner and other family members. To determine their stress coping strategies I used a modified scale of statements from Lazarus and Folkman Ways of coping with stress. The analysis of data obtained from the interviews with mothers showed that they managed to successfully cope with the child’s diagnosis, they completely accepted their child in a very short time, and the children have also been soon accepted by other family members and the environment they live in. I must point out that all the mothers, who participated in my research, used very effective stress coping strategies, such as positive re-evaluation, systematic problem solving and searching for social assistance. It is interesting that the participating mothers have not received any support by experts. The mothers' advise the experts to be sensitive, empathetic and human in delivering the diagnosis and to present to mothers and families the positive facts and characteristics of Down syndrome